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Save the date: 84th Oscars on Feb. 26th

Continuing the recent tradition of presenting its golden statuettes at the end of February, the Academy announced Tuesday that the 84th Acad...

Continuing the recent tradition of presenting its golden statuettes at the end of February, the Academy announced Tuesday that the 84th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 26th, 2012.

While there were rumors the Academy was looking into a January ceremony date, it appears the Academy decided to stick to the last Sunday in February. One report said the NFL halted the Academy's progress to upend the awards season, and increase relevance, by moving the Oscars up. (The Academy's retiring executive director Bruce Davis said in the report: "There are only a limited number of Sundays in January and February … I think some people feel (the Oscars) has lost some of its energy, and we're looking for energy.")

With newly appointed executives at the Academy (set to take charge June 1), changes are inevitable. Moving the ceremony to January could have caused major headaches for the motion picture academy, which utilizes mail-in ballots. Along with voting, members of the Academy would have had to rush to see all of the motion pictures eligible for contention — another factor that time can help.

Alas, the Academy has stuck with recent tradition and ABC will televise the 84th Annual Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 26th, 2011, Academy President Tom Sherak announced Tuesday. The red carpet show will stay its newly expanded 90 minutes will immediately precede the ceremony broadcast. He also announced key dates.

Previous Oscar Nights
Over the past eight decades, more than half of the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held in March (45, to be exact). About a quarter of the ceremonies were held in April (23). Six ceremonies in the past decade have been held in February; five ceremonies in the first two decades were also held during the second month of the year. The 1st Academy Awards were held May 16, 1929. Three were held in November — the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

The Gold Knight will, of course, be covering all angles of the 84th Academy Awards — from the film festivals to the red carpet. Follow all the news here, on Twitter and Facebook.